


In Another Life

by Wildcard



Category: League of Legends
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4268283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wildcard/pseuds/Wildcard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of Alternate Universe drabbles, all Talon-centric. Cameos from Kat, Cass and Vlad, mentions of other characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mafia AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Du Couteaus are one of the most powerful crime families in the city but they're not the only one.

The wind whipped against his eyes, stinging tears to well up that Talon rubbed away crossly with one hand. He hated doing surveillance. Hated it. But there was no way he’d rely on anyone else to accurately deliver the intel on his targets, not even Kat. He stole a sideways glance at her; her hair was pulled up and wrapped in a bun, the woman sheathed in black leather that fit her like a gun barrel fit a bullet.

“So what’s with the fucking rumors that you’ve got some cop sweet on you?” He asked idly, more for the sake of getting a rise out of her than anything else. “Thought you already shot them down.”

“I did,” she snapped, and there was that familiar edge to her tone. The proof of how highly Talon was valued by the Du Couteau family came in the fact that they hadn’t killed him yet for his backtalk. “Swain’s boys are just trying to paint me as some sort of traitor. They want people to think I’m soft because I’m a woman.”

“Yeah, yeah. So let’s take a few more tongues,” Talon suggested, poking his tongue out at her demonstratively.

Talon’s heard that speech too many times to want to encourage it. The difficulties of being a female gangleader was something Kat could talk about for hours - and had, whenever she had a captive audience. Even if said audience was only captive because they were being held hostage during negotiations.

“Not unless Father gives the order.” The capital letter was audible when Kat spoke, her spine straightening a little the way it always did when she mentioned the man who claimed to have been a General back in the Old Country. Talon wasn’t sure if that was true or not but he didn’t care. The man kept their turf free of competition and could deal with the cops too. 

Police Commander Lightshield might be incorruptible, Swain might be a maniac with spies everywhere but the Du Couteaus ruled this side of the town. 

And once this kill was complete, their territory would be just a little bigger.


	2. Apocalypse AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world's ended but Talon's still alive.

Ever since the League closed down, business has been, quite frankly, terrible. 

It’s not the lack of the summoners so much as the huge explosion that rocked Runeterra and cast a grey cloud over the sky that has yet to fade. Without enough sunlight, the crops have been withering; what once was plentiful is now scarce and gold is worth less than a basket of corn. The world’s returned to a barter system and while Talon could deal with that (he’d killed for food before, he’s not too proud to sell his services for apples), the fact remains that nobody can afford to waste money on assassins.

Assassins, Talon has quickly discovered, are luxury goods. People still hate each other but not enough to part with their precious food just to have someone killed. They’d rather wait and hope their enemies starve. 

The former nobles have all fallen from power. Literally, in some cases. The cities and towns are deserted, everyone heading out into the country to take what crops are left. Even the rats in the Underground have grown thinner!

Talon picks his teeth with a bone and watches the farm. Before he was an assassin, he was a thief. He lacks the ability to grow any food for himself but he’s survived so far by taking from others.

He still kills. It’s just that these days, he doesn’t get paid for it.


	3. Avatar/Legend of Korra AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Talon had grown up in the Aang: The Last Airbender or Legend of Korra universe, what would he have been?

Talon prefers stealing in the cities, in the towns, but there are too many war orphans and not enough targets. 

Autumn sets in and he roams beyond the confines of the town walls, gathering acorns in the woods and stripping bark from the trees to boil into bitter teas. He grows used to chewing pine sap to quell the rumbling in his stomach and digs for cattail roots until the skin under his nails is perpetually brown.

The first time Talon sees him, he doesn’t understand. He thinks it’s just another noble with a pet; the deer dances for the white-haired man and all Talon can think of is how good the meat, the blood, would taste in his stomach. There’s no use longing for what he can’t have. If he wants to eat today, he’d better find somewhere else to scavenge; nobles don’t like to be reminded of the existence of the poor.

He’s about to steal off stealthily but the crack of breaking bone resounds through the forest like a gunshot and makes him turn his head sharply back. The deer lies dead at the man’s feet and in the air, crimson lines dance and twirl as the man’s fingers move languidly, commanding the blood as if it were nothing more than ribbons.

Bloodbender. The title echoes in Talon’s head, a rising memory of childhood tales and legends. Bloodbenders don’t exist. Everyone knows that.

But there’s one before him now and Talon’s heart has never beat this fast, even when he runs from the police. His fingers flex at his sides and then suddenly, he’s being wrenched forwards. His legs move to take him forwards, walking him to the bloodbender, even as Talon struggles to force them to stop. It feels almost like being in a dream, watching himself walk without intending to.

Maybe it’s a dream. Maybe it’s a nightmare.

One look into the man’s blood-hued eyes destroys that notion.

“Any last words?” The man asks pleasantly, curving his hand as if he’s about to snap Talon’s neck too.

“Yes,” Talon gasps out and he’s so breathless that he has to stop for a second to collect himself, to give the words the force he needs them to have. _“Teach me that.”_


	4. Twin AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Talon had been born with a twin?

Noxus is a city that obeys the rule of blood. Blood will out, blood will be spilled and everyone must spill their blood during their six years of military service.The twins obey the rule of blood that binds them together and acknowledge no other law.

Their system is perfect. One of them acts as a distraction and the other steals. They’re identical down to the last detail, blood-eyed and sharp-cheeked, and they move with the perfect unison of gears made to fit together. They trade their blades back and forth, each able to work with the other’s knives and they always, always cover each other’s back.

There is no sin but failing to defend your twin. There is no moral law except that of blood, always and forever.

Rumors start to spread about the twins that can take on all comers, that reject offers from the guilds of assassins by killing their envoys. General Du Couteau hears those rumors and takes Katarina with him to face them; he is one man, after all, and he cannot stand against two of such skill. They are father and daughter and he has trained her to fight with his skill, with everything he knows. She is his pride and joy but she is still half her mother’s daughter and their synergy isn’t effortlessly flawless like the twins are.

They do not win but they are allowed to leave alive. Even the twins know better than to take on the House of Du Couteau and think that General Darkwill do nothing about their deaths. They have no interest in taking over surface-side, they don’t want the fame and the acclaim that would come from being known as the lethal creatures they are.

They have everything they want in the Underground. They have blades and blood and respect and each other.

The Axe Brothers are famous but everyone knows they’re Swain’s pets. 

The Blade brothers are infamous and everyone knows they only answer to each other.


	5. Shurima Harem AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for systematic sexual slavery.

“He’s coming!” The announcement’s made by an eunuch who runs in and pants out the words that electrify everyone in the place. Suddenly, mirrors appear from thin air, produced from pockets or pulled out from under pillows. Everyone checks their hair, their make up, sniffs under their armpits and readjusts their bodies into more flattering positions.

Even Talon swallows and stretches out in the furthest corner of his curtained alcove. There’s enough space for a nest-bed but not much else. The concubines aren’t supposed to stay in there all day, only display themselves prettily for when their owner comes to make his choice. There’s a large pool, there’s a beautiful balcony and a high-walled garden for them to entertain themselves with. There’s even an assortment of books in various languages, changed monthly.

All the little luxuries that should keep them happy. All the little luxuries that are supposed to make them forget they’re caged.

Talon hasn’t forgotten. He’s too used to living rough to care how soft the pillows are. 

His first few attempts to escape got him flogged until he was unconscious, then healed so he couldn’t scar and lashed again. It’s clear by now that he can’t make it over the wall without getting caught, or past the guards and the three gates that keeps the concubines off in their separate little area. 

There’s only one thing left for him to try.

He doesn’t want to be chosen, doesn’t want to be touched, but he makes himself smile prettily all the same when his curtain is drawn aside. 

It’s easier to smile when he thinks of the sharp shard of porcelain hidden under his pillow.


	6. Zombie Apocalypse AU

An assassin who relies on knives is a terrible, terrible thing to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. 

Zombies don’t die from having their throat cut. 

Zombies don’t die from being stabbed in the heart.

Zombies need to get their brains pulped and while Talon’s strong, even the best knife is going to blunt after a single stab into a skull.

The first time he’s handed a gun and told that this is going to be his primary weapon, Talon considers killing the man on principle. Unfortunately, if he does, the man will just come back to life as a zombie and then Talon will have to beat him to death with said gun because he’ll have killed his instructor before learning to shoot. His only choice is to learn how to use it in this incredibly depressing new world.

Nobody’s even hiring him for assassinations anymore! He’s advertised that he doesn’t charge extra for killing the target TWICE (once to kill them, once to kill zombie them) but there are still no takers. Everyone’s too busy running around trying to survive. 

Trade is null, he can’t use his precious knives and killing people just isn’t fun when they lumber back to unlife immediately afterwards.

Talon’s never been so _miserable_ in his entire life.


	7. Dystopia AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Contains dubiously consensual Kat/Talon, Cass/Talon and an incredibly terrible dystopia!Noxus.

Everyone knows Noxus requires 6 years of military service. What’s less well-known is that Noxus requires all citizens to have at least two children. If the parents can’t afford to raise the children, the state will take them into its orphanages and eventually, the military.

It’s preferred that the children are fathered and/or birthed before military duty is started. That way, even if they die while on duty, there’ll be a replacement waiting to grow up and take their place.

Talon avoids not only conscription but having children until the General gives him the choice of ‘serve or die’. He expected to be used as the Noxian High Council’s assassin. He didn’t expect to be told he was to father a child on the General’s daughters.

He understands the logic behind it - he’s a nobody with no family, so there will be no power struggle or attempt to absorb the House of Du Couteau into his. He has good blood, however, with innate talents that the child will do well to inherit, and he’s handsome enough the girls can’t complain about that at least. These children will be throwaways, bastards raised for slaughter, and the girls would marry in the future and have real children that they’d raise themselves.

Everyone does it. Katarina’s and Cassiopeia’s bastard siblings have probably already died on the battlefield. For all he knows, he could be their sibling. He’s the right age for it.

It doesn’t matter though. ‘Serve or die’ is the choice he was given.

He tells himself it’s only a different type of mission while he’s in their bed (in them) and tries not to wonder how often will he have to do until it takes.

He tries not to wonder if they hate him too.


	8. Hemomancer AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hemomancy requires a pupil for it to be passed on and Talon's very good at making people bleed.

“I bet your Master didn’t bore you to death with stupid exercises like this,” Talon muttered as he struggled to keep the thin line of blood afloat. Sweat beaded his forehead, running down his cheeks in disgusting cooling lines of wetness and his fingertips were trembling with fatigue.

“He didn’t,” Vladimir agreed, gliding behind Talon to watch the boy’s progress. His long, claw-tipped fingers stroked through the teenager’s hair with a casual possessiveness as he continued, “I found the exercises exciting, not tedious. If you are to be the next heir to hemomancy, you should complain less and work more.”

A sudden jerk of Talon’s fingers had the thimbleful of blood flying at Vlad’s face but he had been prepared for it and simply stopped it in the air. He could feel the boy’s exhausted will trying to stubbornly shove it forward but the child was a neophyte still and tired from his long day of practice.

Hm. Perhaps the boy did deserve a break. Too much failure would discourage him.

“You may go hunt something for our dinner,” Vlad graciously allowed. So it wouldn’t seem like too much an act of mercy, he added, “Don’t waste any of the blood.”

Carrying a hare back while forcing all the blood to stay within the body instead of dribbling out from the stab wound would be good practice for Talon - and besides, Vlad did so like the taste of fresh game.


End file.
